Naked Rambler loses case at European Court of Human Rights where he claimed 'right to be naked in public'

A man dubbed the Naked Rambler has lost a case at the European Court of Human Rights in which he claimed he had the right to be naked in public.

Former marine Stephen Gough is facing a lifetime of arrests and re-arrests as he described the judgment as "a disappointment", saying: "I have no choice but to continue."

He alleged his repeated arrest and imprisonment for being naked in public had violated his rights, but the court unanimously found there had been no breach of Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention.

Mr Gough, 54, a father-of-two from Eastleigh, Hampshire, has walked naked throughout the UK.

He is a well-known campaigner for his right to appear nude in public - even though his actions have often landed him in prison.

Appeal: Stephen Gough (Picture: PA)

Following the ruling today, he said: "I expected them to take the wider view. They have not. Then again, what great endeavour ever succeeded without having to surmount many obstacles that stood in its way? Why should it be any different for me? I have no choice but to continue."

Mr Gough spent five years and three months in detention from May 2006 when his arrest for breaching the peace sparked the current case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.

He appeared naked in court as he pleaded not guilty to breaching the peace and rejected the sheriff's warnings that he would be held in contempt if he did not put some clothes on.

The sheriff found that Gough's conduct on July 20, 2011 was severe enough to cause alarm to ordinary people and threatened serious disturbance to the community.

The ECHR ruled today: "The applicant's imprisonment is the consequence of his repeated violation of the criminal law in full knowledge of the consequences, through conduct which he knew full well not only goes against the standards of accepted public behaviour in any modern democratic society but also is liable to be alarming and morally and otherwise offensive to other, unwarned members of the public going about their ordinary business."

The court described Gough's case as "troubling" but ruled that "relevant and sufficient" measures had been taken against him by the police and legal authorities which saw him arrested in 2011. They were meeting a "pressing social need in response to repeated anti-social conduct" by Gough.

Gough was sentenced to 330 days for the breach of the peace and 90 days for the contempt charge, together with 237 days unspent from a previous sentence, a total of 657 days. The sentences were not backdated and they were to run consecutively. The total length of the sentence was one year, nine months and 18 days.